Make an ethnic Easter dinner

When my four sons all gather at my house for special occasions, they can usually count on having arroz con pollo (chicken with Spanish rice) for dinner.

It was one of my favorite meals when I was growing up, so naturally it has become one of their best-loved meals as well.

It’s hard to say which is most satisfying: the spattering sound of chicken searing in the pan, the spicy and nutty scent of rice browning in oil flavored with toasted garlic and onion, or the joy of the skilled synchronicity required to make a perfect pot of arroz con pollo.  

Being from the American Southwest, I naturally  pair it with pinto beans, or “Texas strawberries,” as my dad used to call them. But in the Caribbean, it is typically served with black beans as part of Easter celebrations.

Once, while telling an acquaintance about making arroz con pollo, she said: “Oh, are you Puerto Rican?”

Her question surprised me because I am of Mexican descent on my mother’s side of the family, so I had always thought of arroz con pollo as Mexican food.

The dish is indeed an important part of Mexican celebrations, such as Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). But in Puerto Rico, it’s as popular at Easter time as ham or pork roast is in the U.S.

It’s also much cheaper. So this Easter Sunday, if your budget or taste buds would prefer a different type of Easter dinner, give the following recipes a try. Your loved ones will appreciate the ethnic cuisine, and your neighbors’ mouths will water as the scent of toasted rice from your kitchen drifts right under their noses.

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Arroz Con Pollo
(Makes 6 servings)

6 chicken thighs
1 cup long grain white rice
1 8 ounce can tomato sauce
1 cup water
2  large garlic cloves
1/2 small onion, diced
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
Dash of Mexican oregano
Salt, to taste
Paprika, to taste
2 teaspoons cooking oil, divided

Drizzle 1 teaspoon of oil in a large nonstick pot. Sear both sides of chicken over medium-high heat, then set pot aside. Next, mix tomato sauce, water and all spices except paprika in a small saucepan and heat.

While the tomato sauce mixture is heating, drizzle remaining teaspoon of oil in large nonstick skillet. When oil has heated over medium-high heat, add garlic and toast it until it turns light brown. Remove garlic with slotted spoon and set it aside.

Next, add rice and stir it with a spatula, so that all rice is lightly coated in oil. Spread the rice evenly out in skillet. After about a minute, stir it and spread it out again for about another minute. Repeat process until rice turns golden brown. Add minced onions and cook for about another minute or two. Remove from heat.

Although it is important to adequately brown rice for optimum flavor, it is equally important not to burn it. Walking that fine line between browning and burning the rice is the key to this dish’s success. If you scorch the rice the first time you try this recipe, discard the rice and begin that step again.

Place pot with chicken back on burner, add hot, browned rice and hot tomato sauce mixture. Make sure all rice is covered in liquid. Mash toasted garlic and stir into pot. Reduce heat, sprinkle a generous amount of paprika evenly over food in pot, cover, and simmer until rice is done, about 18 to 20 minutes. Remove pot from heat, uncover and let sit for about five minutes. Fluff rice and serve with black bean soup and tortillas.

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Easy Black Bean Soup
(Serves 6)

2 cans black beans
2 cans chicken broth
Salt, to taste
6 slices bacon, fried and crumbled into small bits
3 jalapeño peppers, finely diced (remove stems and veins first)
1/4 red onion, minced
1 large tomato, diced

Mix beans and broth, add salt to taste, and heat over medium heat. Meanwhile, mix peppers, onion and tomato to make pico de gallo. Spoon soup into serving bowls and garnish soup with pico de gallo and bits of fried bacon.